April 22/04 2:54 am - Tour de Georgia: Stage 3 Story and Full Results

Lance Armstrong wowed the partisan crowd in Rome Georgia with a totally unexpected win against the sprinters in stage 3. Ivan Dominguez (Colavita-Bolla Wines) took his third consecutive second place, and moved into the leader's jersey, while Mark Walters moved into the Climbers Jersey.

The 125 kilometre stage was expected to be a fairly easy ride, because the important time trial is set for this afternoon. The peloton rolled into Rome, over near the Alabama border altogether, and finished off with three laps of a downtown circuit, which was much tougher than expected. The kicker was a short steep climb of 13% next to a Confederate era clock tower, which the riders had to struggle up 4 times. The first time, as they entered the circuit the climb counted as the KoM of the day, and Walters managed to take second behind Will Frischkorn (Colavita-Bolla Wines). This, combined with his first and second in yesterday's KoMs put him in the Climbers Jersey. "I'm not a pure climber, and certainly not in Armstrong's class, so I don't expect to be in it after tomorrow! Our plan was just to try and grab it while we can."

This was definitely not a finish that suited the sprinters (with the exception of Dominguez, who is turning out to be the revelation of the race). However, Armstrong was not expected to be at the front, so it was a complete surprise when he burst through in the final 200 metres. He started much later than the others contesting the win. His team mate George Hincapie attacked hard down the left, with Dominguez to his right and Ben Brooks (Jelly Belly-Aramark) across the other side of the road. Then, another Postal blue jersey appeared to the right of Dominguez, coming up fast. Hincapie looked over, and appeared to hesitate. Did he back off or run out of steam? We'll probably never know.

"No, there was no plan to win this stage" said Armstrong afterwards. We knew the circuit would be hard, but didn't come in with a plan to win. It (the circuit) was harder than anyone anticipated. Chris (Horner - Webcor) and Bobby (Julich - CSC) were at the front marking each other, and George brought me up. I found the right wheel and found myself coming around (the front)."

Armstrong did admit that his win, which moved him into fourth with the time bonus, had the benefit of allowing him to start behind major rivals Horner and Julich. "The biggest benefit is more rest. If you can move up 20 places, you gain an extra 30-40 minutes of rest before the stage. That's important, because this morning's stage was longer than we usually have in these circumstances. Usually it is 50 to 60 miles, and this was over 75 miles."

Race News

- Armstrong and some of his team mates were assessed a cash penalty for drafting their team vehicle after Armstrong's flat in yesterday's stage. Armstrong commented today to television crews "This is the first time in my life that I've seen that rule. If that is a UCI rule, it's the first time it has ever been enforced. You always come up through the cars. I guess this commissaire is a pioneer." The commissaire is B.C.'s Wayne Pomario...

Editor's Note: By the way, if you check the photos from yesterday (when I was on a moto), you will see that Armstrong and his team mates blatantly drafted their vehicle for at least a kilometre and a half.